Advanced Rulebook

Advanced Rules
THIS
IS NOt A COMPLEtE RULEBOOK!

You should consult it after reading through the Basic Rules (also found in your Ivory Edition starter). Between them, the two booklets present the complete rules of the Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) card game. If you need the complete rules presented all in one piece, download the Tournament Rulebook from rules.l5r.com.

Maximum Hand Size

Players have a maximum hand size of eight. After drawing all cards at the end of your turn,

-2-

if you have more cards in hand than the maximum, you must choose and discard cards from your hand until you no longer have too many. Some effects may change a players maximum hand size.

Provinces
Each province has a separate Province Strength stat, based on the Strongholds Province Strength plus any modifiers from Sensei and other effects.

Personalities
Chi Death Rule
If a Personalitys Chi is ever zero, destroy him immediately.

-3-

Clan Honor Rule

Players can lose Honor from their own cards, from other players cards, or from the Rulebook (that is, when their Personality dies dishonorably; see p. 16). After a player loses Honor from another players card, or from the Rulebook, for the rest of the game he or she ignores Honor Requirements on Personalities with his or her own Clan Alignment.

Dead Personalities
Personalities that are destroyed are treated differently from Personalities that are merely discarded (for example, from a Province). Turn dead Personalities 90 degrees in the discard pile, or create a separate pile for dead Personalities.

-4-

Advanced Card Types

In addition to the Dynasty typesPersonalities and Holdingsand Fate typesFollowers, Items, and Strategiesintroduced in the Basic Game, L5R has a number of other card types.

Sensei
A Sensei is a card that you may start with in play, representing a revered master whose teachings have influenced you. You may only have one Sensei in play, you start with it in play, and the choice of Sensei is part of your deck construction. Like your Stronghold, the Sensei does not go into the Dynasty or Fate deck and is neither a Dynasty nor Fate card.

-5-

- Sensei CARD TItLE PROVINCE StRENGtH MODIfIER GOLD PRODUCtION MODIfIER FAMILY HONOR MODIfIER

CLAN ALIGNMENt

TEXt BOX

-6-

A Sensei will usually have one or more Clan Alignment requirements, such as Scorpion Clan. You may only start with a Sensei that matches your Strongholds Clan Alignment, or with an All Clans Sensei. A Sensei modifies your Stronghold: It has modifiers for Province Strength, Gold Production and Starting Family Honor which always modify the Strongholds stats. A Sensei may also have traits and abilities that apply to you and that work similarly to those of a Stronghold.

Event
Events represent important happenings in Rokugan. While they are face-up in your Provinces, and only then, you can use their abilities. They are discarded once their abilities are used, unless the ability puts them into play. Apart from its abilities, an Event may have traits in its text box, and these apply while in play.

-7-

- Event TEXt BOX

TEXt BOX

GOLD COSt

- Spell FOCUS VALUE

-8-

Spell
Spells are attachments. They represent magic scrolls used by a Shugenja (a person trained in the magic of Rokugan). Spells have no Force or Chi modifiers. They will only attach to a Shugenja, and their abilities can only be used (cast) if attached to a Shugenja. (see also Cast, p. 25).

Ring
Ring cards represent understanding of the mystic elements. They can be discarded from the hand to use their ability, or put into play when you meet the special conditions of the text in their trait. When in play, their ability can be used without having to discard them.

-9-

Actions
The Basic rules introduced Limited, Open, Battle and Dynasty actions. The full game has two more types of action: Engage and Interrupt. Engage actions are taken in a special action round during a battle, before either player has the chance to take Battle actions. See p. 54. Interrupts are announced during another actioneither yours or another playersat the point after costs are paid and before the actions effects start to resolve. The other action is suspended while you carry out the Interrupt action; then the original action resumes. Interrupts refer to the original action as the action (for example, The action cannot move Personalities.) If an Interrupt modifies an actions effects, this only applies to the action being interrupted, not to subsequent actions that turn.

-10-

Color, Flavor, & Reminder Text

Because Legend of the Five Rings tells a story, abilities on some cards may have a sentence of descriptive phrasing such as The snow blocks travel. Such phrasing is for color only. Phrasing that is relevant to the rules will refer to a term that can be found on other cards, or is defined in these rules. Text in (parentheses and italics) is a short, informal reminder of what the card does according to the rules. Descriptive text in italics without parentheses is flavor text, and also has no bearing on the rules. You may play as many Interrupts as you wish to a single action, but you may not play an Interrupt during another Interrupt action.

-11-

How Long Do Things Last?

Some effects are instantaneous, and marked by physical changes to the game components, such as bowing cards, changing their location, adding tokens, and changes to Family Honor. These changes do not wear off by themselves. Other effects involve changes that are ongoing. That is, they last until a certain point in the game, and are not physically marked by the game components. Some examples of ongoing effects include stats such as Give a target attacking Personality +2F, or giving a card the trait, This Personality will not bow. All ongoing effects last until the end of the current turn, unless they give a different duration.

-12-

As with Battle actions, Engage and Interrupt actions taken during a battle are subject to the Rules of Presence and Location, as described in the Basic Rulebook (see Basic Rulebook p. 57).

Recruit & Equip

Some actions tell you to Recruit or Equip a card. When this happens, pay the cost of the card entering play (indicated by the actions own * Gold cost), and apply all the effects of the Recruit or Equip player action.

Traits
Text in a cards text box can be keywords, an ability (starting with boldface words such as Open: or Ninja Battle:) or flavor text (italicized text that is only descriptive and not used in the game). Game-relevant text that is not part of any of these is a trait.

-13-

Some traits are triggered by other things happening, for example, After this card enters play, lose 3 Honor. A trait is not like an action, though: cc cc cc cc A trait is not optional; you must apply the effects whenever the trigger is met. A trait can be triggered when its card is bowed. A traits effects are not restricted to once per turn. A trait without a trigger on a card, such as Your Samurai each have +1F, has a continuous effect that is always on while the card is in play.

The Imperial Favor

The Imperial Favor is a resource that gives great political advantage to those who call upon it. It is represented by an object

-14-

that starts the game uncontrolled. When it becomes controlled, its controller places it in his home, in front of him, visible to all players. Ivory Edition Starter Decks include a card that you can use to represent the Imperial Favor. If you control the Favor, you may discard it, and then it becomes uncontrolled. Discarding the Favor is required for certain actions, including (but not limited to) the following two Favor player abilities: Favor Political Limited: Discard the Imperial Favor and a card to draw a card. Favor Political Battle: Discard the Imperial Favor to move home a target attacking enemy Personality.

Lobbying
This player ability lets you take the Imperial Favor, vying to win the favor of the Empress

-15-

by reminding her of your familys high deeds and standing.

Lobby
Political Limited: If you have higher Family Honor than each other player, bow your target unbowed Personality with 1 or more Personal Honor to take the Imperial Favor.

Dishonored Personalities
Some things can dishonor a Personality, disgracing him or her in the eyes of Rokugan. Turn the Personality card 180 degrees upside down to show this dishonorable state. A dishonorable Personality has a maximum of zero Personal Honor.

-16-

After a Personality is destroyed while dishonorable, the player who last controlled him loses Honor equal to the Personalitys printed Personal Honor. (This loss does not come from a card, but from the Rulebook.) A destroyed dishonorable Personality remains dishonorably dead even in the discard pile. Dishonorable Personalities remain dishonorable until an effect rehonors them (restores them to honorable status). Turn the card right side up again to represent the rehonoring. Sometimes an honor gain will rehonor a Person-

- Dishonored -

-17-

ality. Specifically, you substitute rehonoring for Honor gain: cc Before a player gains Honor from an action or trait that targeted or came from one or more of his or her dishonorable Personalities. Before a player gains Honor for attaching a card to their dishonorable Personality. Before a player with any dishonorable Personalities in his or her army gains Honor from destroying enemy cards in battle resolution. In a tied battle, all dishonorable Personalities in an army are rehonored before being destroyed, and their armys leader gains no Honor.

cc

cc

In these cases, the honor gain will not happen, and instead the Personality or Personalities will be restored to honorable status.

-18-

Battles
Engage Segment
Engage actions represent especially wellprepared or rapid maneuvers in battle. The Engage Segment is an action round of Engage actions, starting with the Defender, that comes before Battle actions are taken in the Combat Segment. Once both players have passed consecutively on Engage actions, the Engage Segment ends and the Combat Segment begins.

Attacking Multiple Provinces

In the Basic Game, the Attacker only chooses one Province to attack, creating a battle-

-19-

field there. In the Advanced Game, after the Attacker declares an attack, a battlefield is created at each of the Defenders Provinces. When the Attacker and Defender assign, they may assign any of their legal units to any of these battlefields. A battle is then fought at each of these battlefields, with the Attacker choosing one by one which battle to fight, until all the battlefields have been fought at. Often, these battles will be at empty battlefields, and fighting them is a mere formality. In each battle, go through the Engage, Combat and Resolution segments in order. The steps after a battle also happen before the next battle begins, including units returning home. If any units find themselves at a battlefield whose battle has ended, they return home after the last battle ends, bowing if they were attacking.

-20-

No Second Battle
There is one additional rule restricting effects during a battle. A Personality who has already been in an attacking army during a battle resolution in the current Attack Phase will not move to a battlefield again during that Attack Phase.

Advanced Victory Conditions

In addition to the military and honor victories supported in the Basic Game, there are two other ways to win a game of L5R.

Dishonor Victory
If a players Family Honor is 20 or below at the end of his or her turn, he or she loses.

-21-

Enlightenment Victory
You win immediately if you control five Rings with five different element keywords (Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Void). You have seen the emptiness behind the so-called victory in war and court, and become an enlightened master.

Deck Building
You can expand and change your starter deck by trading for or buying other cards. Follow these rules to build a legal play deck in Ivory Edition 40/40 format: cc The Dynasty and Fate decks must each have at least 40 cards. Your Stronghold and Sensei do not count toward this minimum, and copies of those cards may not be included in the Fate or Dynasty decks.

-22-

cc

All cards in the play deck (including the Stronghold and Sensei) must be Ivory Edition legal, having the Ivory Edition symbol in the lower left hand corner of their most recent printing (MRP). Older printings of the cards may be used (see also Soul of , p. 41), but in all L5R formats, cards are considered to have the stats and text of their MRP. If you use older cards, youre responsible for knowing these differences and communicating them to your opponent. You can have no more than three copies of any card, by title, in your decks. You can have no more than one copy of each Unique card, by title, in your decks.

cc cc

Note that Experienced cards (p. 31) are an exception to the last two rules.

-23-

Game Terms & Keywords

In alphabetical order, this section lists rules associated with specific game terms and keywords that are not mentioned in the basic rules. After this, we present a number of fine points in the rules. Absent: An ability with the Absent keyword may be used during battle even if you control no units at the current battlefield. Active Player: The player whose turn it is. Additional actions: Additional actions granted by effects are taken after the current action resolves. In effect, they allow you to take another action in the present action round without your opponent getting an action. If the type of additional action is not specified, it is the type appropriate to the current action roundLimited in your Action Phase, Open in any players

-24-

Action Phase, Engage in the Engage Segment and Battle in the Combat Segment. Ally: A term used in the multiplayer rules (see Online Rules, p. 50). Armor: A keyword found on some Items. A Personality cannot have more than one Armor attached. Cannot: These words mean that an effect is prevented (see p. 38). Cast: When you take an action from a Spell attached to a Personality (usually a Shugenja) the Personality with the Spell attached in question casts the Spell and is the caster. Cavalry: The Cavalry keyword is relevant to the following ability which all players have: Absent Engage: Target your unbowed Personality in a Cavalry unit at any location. Move him to the current battlefield. A Cavalry unit is one in which the Personality and all Followers, if any, have the Cavalry keyword (see Units, p. 46).

-25-

Challenge: See Duel, Basic Rulebook, p.69. Clan Alignment: A keyword ending in Clan that refers to one of the nine major Clans: Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Mantis, Phoenix, Scorpion, Spider, and Unicorn. Other keywords ending in Clan (for example, Bat Clan) are not Clan Alignments. Players, Personalities, Strongholds and Sensei can have Clan Alignments. A card also has a Clan Alignment if that clans symbol appears in the title bar. Combining: A way to use similar actions from cards in the same unit to create a larger strength effect. Fear effects, Ranged Attacks, and Melee Attacks can each be combined, but only with other effects of the same kind (that is, Ranged and Melee Attacks cannot combine with each other, etc.) To explain this rule well use the term attack effect and kind of effect to refer to the particular effect you are combining, whether Fear, Ranged or Melee. After you have paid the costs of an initial action that creates an attack effect from a card in a unit, as an Interrupt to

-26-

that action, you may pay the costs of an action from another card in the same unit that is appropriate to the phase and that creates another attack effect of the same kind, using that ability. Then resolve that actions effects, but instead of creating a separate attack effect, each of those actions relevant attack effects adds its own strength (with any modifications in effect) to the strength of the original attack effect. The original attack effect may only target a card that it, as well as each of the combining actions, could target. All other characteristics of the attack effect come from the original. You may combine more than one attack effect with the same initial action. Conqueror: Cards in a Conqueror Personalitys unit do not bow returning home after a battle. Contribute: A Personality or Follower contributes Force when its Force is added into its armys total Force. This is part of a battles resolution, but can also happen when an armys total Force is calculated for other rea-

-27-

sons. Bowed Personalities and Followers do not contribute Force. Control: You gain control of a card when you bring it into play; only cards in play are controlled. You will normally keep control of the card while it remains in play. However, an attachment is always controlled by its Personalitys controller. Some effects may change control of a card between players. Immediately after a player successfully takes control of another players card: cc If the card is at a battlefield, it goes to the new controllers side of the battlefield, attaching to one of his Personalities if necessary; Otherwise, it enters the new players home.

cc

Neither of these changes in location is movement. Copy: Some effects may copy a keyword, trait, or stat from one card to another. If a stat is cop-

-28-

ied, set the copying cards stat to the current value of the copied cards stat (see Set, p. 40). A card cannot copy its own text or stats. Created Cards: Some effects may create cards in addition to the cards included in decks. You may use pieces of paper, face down spare cards, or other objects to keep track of these. If an effect that creates a card gives no value for a stat the card type normally has, that stats base value is zero. Exception: Created Personalities have a Honor Requirement. Created attachments attach to a Personality as part of their creation effect. Other cards you create enter play in your home, and cards created during a battle join your current army, attaching to a Personality if necessary. When a created card leaves play, it ceases to exist. Dead, Destroy: See Personalities, p. 4. Destined: After your card with the Destined keyword enters play, draw a Fate card.

-29-

Discard: To put a card in its Dynasty or Fate discard pile. Discard a card by itself means discard a Fate card from your hand. If an effect requires you to discard the Imperial Favor, this means that you give up control of the Favor and it becomes uncontrolled. Discarded: The state of a card that is in a discard pile and is not dead. Discipline: A special trait on Strategies, appearing with a Gold cost icon. You may play a card with the Discipline trait from your discard pile for one of its actions, paying the Gold cost in the icon as an additional cost of the action (or adding the Gold cost to the actions if it already has a Gold cost). After the action ends, remove the card from the game. Keep in mind that abilities can be used only once per turn, meaning that Discipline abilities normally cant be used from the discard pile on the same turn you used them from your hand. Do Not, Does Not: These phrases in a card effect means that another effect is prevented (p. 38).

-30-

Draw: To put the top card of your Fate deck into your hand. Duel: See Basic Rulebook, p. 69. Element Keyword: One of the five keywords representing the mystic elements of Rokugan: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Void. Enemy: Referring to the player on the opposing side to you during a battle (the enemy leader), and to cards in units he or she controls. Cards not in units, such as Holdings, Terrains, or Regions, are not enemy cards. Exchange: When an effect exchanges two stats, note their current values. Then, simultaneously set each stat to the noted value of the other one (see Set, p. 40). Expendable: After a card with the Expendable keyword is destroyed, the player who controlled it last draws a card. Experienced: Some Personality cards have the Experienced keyword, which is sometimes

-31-

followed by a number representing the Personalitys experience level. A Personality with Experienced and no number has experience level of one. A Personality without Experienced has experience level zero. Any number of single Personalities with the same title but different experience levels may be included in a deck. During the Dynasty Phase, you may bring an Experienced Personality into play normally, or you may overlay him onto one of your Personalities of the same type in play with the same title, but lower experience level, as a Dynasty action. When you overlay, you do not need to meet Honor Requirements or pay costs, but you do need to meet other requirements and restrictions, including Loyal (p. 36). An overlaying card replaces its less experienced version without entering play, and the less experienced card is removed from the game without leaving play. On overlaying, the new card keeps all states, ongoing effects, attachments, and tokens of the old card, and is considered to be the same card.

-32-

Fail: When a cost or effect is activated but the game text but does not happen, it fails. This can be because of prevention (p. 38), or lack of suitable object (for example, Bow an unbowed Shugenja when no Shugenja are in the game). Fear: An effect that follows similar rules to Ranged and Melee Attacks (p. 36 and 39). A Fear effect has a numerical strength (example: Fear 4). Fear X is shorthand for the effect Bow a target enemy Follower or Personality without Followers with X or lower Force. Fear effects from cards in the same unit can be combined with each other. See Combining, p. 26. Focus, Focus Effect: Terms used in dueling. See Basic Rulebook, p. 71. Fortification: When brought into play, Holdings with the Fortification keyword are attached to the Province they entered play from, or to any of your Provinces if they were not brought in from a Province. Keep the Holding card under any card in the Province, in the same way an attachment is kept under its Person-

-33-

ality. Fortifications enter play paying costs as normal, but enter play unbowed (straightened). They are discarded if the Province is destroyed. During a battle, abilities on Fortifications can only be used if the Fortification is attached to the current battlefields Province. Home: The location in front of a players provinces where cards normally enter play, as opposed to battlefields. Home (keyword): An ability with the Home keyword may be used during battle even if the card it is on is at home. Honorable: A Personality who is not dishonorable. Honorably dead refers to such a Personality who is dead. See p. 16. Invest: This is a trait that starts with Invest and a Gold cost (for example, Invest 2 :). After a card with Invest is played, you may pay the additional cost in the Invest trait, once, to get an additional effect (for example, Gain 1 Honor or Give this card a +1F token.)

-34-

Infantry: This term refers to a Personality or Follower who does not have the Cavalry keyword. It is not itself a keyword. Kensai: A Kensai Personality can attach two Weapons if neither of them is Two-Handed. See Weapon (p. 44). Kharmic: A keyword that can appear on Dynasty or Fate cards, and allows you to pay 2 Gold to cycle them from your hand or Province. Specifically, all players have the following ability relevant to Kharmic cards: Kharmic Repeatable Limited, 2 : Discard a Kharmic card from your hand to draw a card, or discard a Kharmic card from your Province to refill the Province face-up. Leader: The Attacker or Defender in a battle. You are the friendly leader; the other player is the Enemy Leader. This term is more relevant to the multiplayer rules (see Online Rules, p. 50).

-35-

Location: An area holding cards in play. Each battlefield and each players home is a separate location. Look: To inspect a facedown card without showing it to anyone else or changing its position (for example, in a deck). Loyal: A Personality with the Loyal keyword cannot join a player who does not share a Clan alignment with the Personality, either by entering play or by taking control. May Not: See Prevention, p. 38 Melee Attack: These follow the same rules as Ranged Attacks (p. 39), representing destruction from close-range combat. Melee Attacks may be combined with other Melee Attacks. Move: An effect that moves a Personality changes his position from one location to another. Effects that move a Personality to a battlefield always move it into his controllers side there. Assigning to battlefields, and returning home from them, is not moving.

-36-

Multiplayer: A keyword telling you that a card is most useful (or only useful) in a multiplayer game. See Online Rules, p. 50. Naval: All players have the following ability relevant to Naval cards: Engage: If you are the Attacker, you have the first opportunity to take a Battle action, which must come from a card in a Naval Personalitys unit. Passing that action does not count toward ending the action round. Negate: A term that indicates a prevention effect (p. 38). Negate an action means to prevent all the actions effects and targeting, from the time the negation is applied. Opposed: A card, side, or army is opposed at a battlefield if there are one or more units in the enemy army. Opposing: Opposing refers to cards at the same battlefield, on different sides.

-37-

Overlay: See Experienced, p. 31 Own: You own all cards that were originally in your play deck and that you brought into play from outside the game, including cards you created. Cards you own can never go into another players decks or discard piles; they always go to yours instead. Permanent: A permanent effect refers to an effect whose duration lasts until the end of the game. Permanent effects can still be negated, ended, and changed by other effects. Prevention: A prevention effect is one that uses language such as negate, cannot, does not, or will not. While a prevention effect lasts, it makes another effect or type of effect fail to happen whenever it would occur. When an ongoing type of effect is prevented (for example, Negate all Force bonuses on him), this only suppresses existing effects for as long as the prevention lasts; it does not prevent new ones from applying. When an instant type of effect is prevented (for example,

-38-

Negate his destruction) this prevents new effects of that type for as long as the negation effect lasts. Ranged Attack: A Ranged Attack represents a military effect that destroys at a distance, such as archers arrows or a magical fiery bolt. Ranged X Attack, where X stands for a number, is shorthand for the text Destroy a target enemy Follower or Personality without Followers with X or lower Force. A Ranged Attack action is one with a Ranged Attack effect. If a Ranged Attack effect ends up being compared against a different stat than Force, compare that stat against the Ranged Attacks strength instead to determine whether the target is destroyed. Rehonor: See p. 16. Repeatable: An ability with the Repeatable keyword may be used any number of times per turn. Reserve: The following player abilities are relevant to the Reserve keyword:

-39-

Absent Repeatable Battle, * : If he would be opposed, Recruit your target Reserve Personality (into the current battlefield). Repeatable Battle, * : If it would be opposed, Equip a Reserve attachment to your target Personality (at the current battlefield). Reveal: To turn a facedown card faceup. Search: To look through a deck or other area for a card of a specified kind. After you search a deck, you must reshuffle it after you take any card(s) you searched for. Seppuku: An act of ritual suicide. If an effect directs a Personality to commit seppuku, apply the following effects: Rehonor the Personality, then destroy him; these effects will not be negated. Set: When a stat is set to a particular value, give it a bonus or penalty such that it reaches the new value.

-40-

Show: To display the face of a facedown card to all other players, then return it to its face down state. Shugenja: A person trained in the magic of Rokugan. Only Shugenja Personalities can Equip and cast Spells. Soul of : This is a keyword that includes another Personalitys title, showing that the current character is a descendant or disciple of the older character in the present generation. Soul of Personalities are equivalent to the older card for deck construction purposes. In a game, you may use a copy of the older card from a previous edition as a proxy for the Soul of version, but you must inform the other player of any differences in stats or wording between the two when it appears in the game. Switch: When an effect switches the locations of two units, each one simultaneously moves to the location of the other. If one movement is negated, the other one is also negated.

-41-

Tactician: All Tactician Personalities have the following ability, known as Tactical Advantage.

Tactical Advantage
Battle: Discard a card to give this Personality a Force bonus equal to the Focus Value of the discarded card. This ability cannot be removed or copied from the Tactician Personality. Terrain: A Strategy with the Terrain keyword represents the ground on which a battle is fought. Most Terrains have a Battle ability that puts them into play at the current battlefield. After a battle ends, discard any Terrain at its battlefield. Tireless: An ability with the Tireless keyword may be used even if the card it is on is bowed. Token: A marker in the game. You may use beads, pieces of paper, or other distinct objects

-42-

as tokens. Tokens may have a keyword (such as Corruption). They may also give a stat bonus or penalty (such as 1C) to whatever they are on. This bonus or penalty is considered to come from the last effect that placed the token on the card or area. Tokens are not cards. They are removed from the game if the card they are on leaves play. Transfer: To re-attach a card or token from one card or province to another. You do not need to pay the costs of a transferred card again, but you do need to meet any restrictions on attaching. Unaligned: Refers to a Personality, player, or Stronghold without a Clan alignment. It is not itself a keyword. Unique: A player cannot bring into play or take control of a Unique card if he or she already controls a Unique card with the same title (but see Experienced, p. 31). If a player takes control of a unit with a copy of a Unique attachment he or she already controls, discard the new attach-

-43-

ment. The Unique keyword also restricts deck construction. See Deck Building, p. 22. Weapon: A Personality can have only one Weapon attached. Exception: See Kensai, p. 35. Will Not: This phrase in a card effect means that another effect is prevented (p. 38).

Special Circumstances
The following rules are for situations that may sometimes arise in advanced play.

Keywords
Keywords on abilities also apply to their cardsso, for example, a Strategy with a Political ability is a Political Strategy. Keywords on cards do not apply to their abilitiesan ability on a Ninja card is not a Ninja ability unless it says so. For example, Ninja Battle:

-44-

In Play & Out of Play

Cards must be in playthat is, in your home or at a battlefieldto be legal targets, unless the targeting says or implies otherwise. To use its abilities, a card must either be in play, be an Event played from your Province, or be a Strategy or Ring played from your hand. Abilities that break this rule will say that they can be used from a different area (for example, If this Follower is in your hand) If a card is both out of play and face-down (including returning to the hand), it forgets ongoing effects on it, and other changes such as whether its abilities have been used.

Bonuses, Penalties & Stats

Bonuses are effects from cards or player abilities that say they increase a stat. The added Force and Chi from the relevant modifier stats on Items are modifiers, not bonuses, but if

-45-

an Item says This Personality has +2F while opposed, that counts as a bonus. All stats, except for Family Honor and Honor Requirement, have a minimum value of zero. If you need to know a stats value at any time, apply all current bonuses and penalties first, then apply any minimum or maximum value. Example: If a card with 2 Force gets a -3F penalty, apply the penalty, then the basic minimum of zero. This means that the cards Force is zero for all purposes, not -1. If it then gets a +2F bonus, apply the bonus, the penalty, and the minimum, so that it now has 1 Force.

Units
References to a units keywordfor example, A Cavalry unitmean a unit where the Personality and each Follower in it (if any) all have that keyword. For example, a unit with a Cavalry Per-

-46-

sonality and a non- Cavalry Follower would not be a Cavalry unit, because of the Follower. Effects that do something to a unitfor example, bow or destroyhave their effect on each card in that unit. If a Personality leaves play, all his or her attached cards leave play in the same way.

Simultaneous Things
As a general rule, if two or more things appear to happen simultaneously, the player whose turn it is decides in what order they happen. More detailed rules covering this issue are found in the Online Rules (see p. 50). An exception is Interrupt actions, because they are taken at their players choice. If more than one Interrupt can be triggered at the same time, use a special action round. The active player has the first opportunity to play an Interrupt to that action or pass, fol-

-47-

lowed by the other player, and then the active player has another opportunity. The action round continues until both players pass consecutively.

Empty Decks
If either the Dynasty or Fate deck runs out of cards, nothing special happens, except that there are no more cards left in the deck. Provinces that cannot be refilled still exist. Use markers to represent them.

Separate Effects
Each of an actions or traits effects is separate, and will happen even if the other effects fail to happen. For example, if an action says Battle: Straighten your target Personality and move him home, if he is already unbowed you can still take the action; the straightening fails, but he still goes home.

-48-

Exceptions
Some cards describe an effect happening to do something else (for example, Discard a card to gain 1 Honor.) If the first effect fails (for example, discarding a card with no cards in hand), the second thing (gaining Honor) does not happen. Likewise, if a card says to do something after or as something else happens (for example, As he moves, bow him; After he is dishonored, gain 1 Honor) , the second thing doesnt happen if the first thing fails to happen. In the second example here, if an already dishonorable Personality is dishonored, the 1 Honor gain does not happen, because he does not go from the honorable to dishonorable state. Targeting can cause the remaining effects in an action to fail if it is not met, but targeting is not itself an effect (see Actions, p. 10)

-49-

Online Rules
Visit http://rules.l5r.com for errata and comprehensive rules, plus variant rules for 3 or more players, draft, sealed deck and more. Rules questions can be asked and officially answered at the L5R CCG Rules Questions forum (http://www.alderac. com/forum/). The Tournament Rulebook is a resource for tournament judges and players, a printable document available online. They cover rare situations and questions such as: cc cc cc When can I play a card even though it will have no effect (Good Faith Rule)? Does a created card have a printed Force? Does destruction for having zero Chi come from a card or the Rulebook? What about destruction from a Ranged Attack?

The most detailed rules resource is the Comprehensive Rules, also available online.

-50-

Complete Turn Sequence

1. Action Phase. Straighten your bowed cards and reveal cards in Provinces. Then take an action round: your Limited and Open actions, your opponents Open actions. 2. (Optional) Attack Phase. You may declare an attack. Assign your unbowed Personalities to attack your opponents Provinces. Your opponent assigns unbowed Personalities to defend. At each Province (Attacker decides order): cc cc cc Defender, then Attacker, take a round of Engage actions. Combat Segment: Defender, then Attacker, take a round of Battle actions. Resolution: Side with most total Force wins, not counting bowed Personali-

-51-

ties and Followers. Destroy all cards on the losing side, or all cards if tied; each player gets 2 Honor for each enemy card destroyed this way. Destroy the Province if the Attackers total Force was greater than the Defenders total Force plus Province Strength. cc Attacking units return home, then bow. 3. Dynasty Phase. Bring Personalities and Holdings into play. Discard face-up Dynasty cards. Draw cards up to your hand size limit (eight).

Action Phase Abilities

Cycle
Limited: If it is your first turn, choose one or more face-up cards in your Provinces. Put them on the bottom of your deck in any order. (Refill the empty Provinces face-down.) Then, turn all cards in your Provinces face-up.

-52-

Equip
Repeatable Open, * : Attach an attachment card, with Gold Cost equal to the amount you paid, from your hand to your target Personality.

Lobby
Political Limited: If you have higher Family Honor than each other player, bow your target unbowed Personality with 1 or more Personal Honor to take the Imperial Favor.

Imperial Favor
Favor Political Limited: Discard the Imperial Favor and a card to draw a card.

Kharmic
Kharmic Repeatable Limited, 2 : Discard a Kharmic card from your hand to draw

-53-

a card, or discard a Kharmic card from your Province to refill the Province face-up.

Attack Phase Abilities

Engage Segment
Cavalry
Absent Engage: Target your unbowed Personality in a Cavalry unit at any location. Move him to the current battlefield.

Naval
Engage: If you are the Attacker, you have the first opportunity to take a Battle action, which must come from a card in a Naval Personalitys unit. Passing that action does not count toward ending the action round.

-54-

Combat Segment
Imperial Favor
Favor Political Battle: Discard the Imperial Favor To move home a target attacking enemy Personality.

Reserve
Absent Repeatable Battle, * : If he would be opposed, Recruit your target Reserve Personality (into the current battlefield). Repeatable Battle, * : If it would be opposed, Equip a Reserve attachment to your target Personality (at the current battlefield).

Tactical Advantage
Battle: Discard a card to give this Personality a Force bonus equal to the Focus Value of the discarded card. (This is an ability granted by the rules to each Tactician Personality)

-55-

Dynasty Phase Abilities

Recruit
Repeatable Dynasty, * : Bring into play a face-up Personality or Holding from your Province with Gold Cost equal to the amount you paid, paying 2 more Gold if the Personality has a Clan Alignment but does not have your Clan Alignment. (Holdings enter play bowed.) Once during your own turn, after you announce a Recruit action or an action with Recruit as an effect, you may choose to Proclaim the Personality being Recruited. If he has your Clan Alignment, gain Honor equal to his Personal Honor after he enters play

Discard
Repeatable Dynasty: Discard a face-up card from one of your Provinces. (Refill it face-down.)

-56-

Advanced Rules
THIS
IS NOT A COMPLETE RULEBOOK!

You should consult it after reading through the Basic Rules (also found in your Ivory Edition starter). Between them, the two booklets present the complete rules of the Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) card game. If you need the complete rules presented all in one piece, download the Tournament Rulebook from rules.l5r.com.

Maximum Hand Size

Players have a maximum hand size of eight. After drawing all cards at the end of your turn,

-2-

if you have more cards in hand than the maximum, you must choose and discard cards from your hand until you no longer have too many. Some effects may change a players maximum hand size.

Provinces
Each province has a separate Province Strength stat, based on the Strongholds Province Strength plus any modifiers from Sensei and other effects.

Personalities
Chi Death Rule
If a Personalitys Chi is ever zero, destroy him immediately.

-3-

Clan Honor Rule

Players can lose Honor from their own cards, from other players cards, or from the Rulebook (that is, when their Personality dies dishonorably; see p. 16). After a player loses Honor from another players card, or from the Rulebook, for the rest of the game he or she ignores Honor Requirements on Personalities with his or her own Clan Alignment.

Dead Personalities
Personalities that are destroyed are treated differently from Personalities that are merely discarded (for example, from a Province). Turn dead Personalities 90 degrees in the discard pile, or create a separate pile for dead Personalities.

-4-

Advanced Card Types

In addition to the Dynasty typesPersonalities and Holdingsand Fate typesFollowers, Items, and Strategiesintroduced in the Basic Game, L5R has a number of other card types.

Sensei
A Sensei is a card that you may start with in play, representing a revered master whose teachings have influenced you. You may only have one Sensei in play, you start with it in play, and the choice of Sensei is part of your deck construction. Like your Stronghold, the Sensei does not go into the Dynasty or Fate deck and is neither a Dynasty nor Fate card.

-5-

- Sensei CARD TITLE PROVINCE STRENGTH MODIFIER GOLD PRODUCTION MODIFIER FAMILY HONOR MODIFIER

CLAN ALIGNMENT

TEXT BOX

-6-

A Sensei will usually have one or more Clan Alignment requirements, such as Scorpion Clan. You may only start with a Sensei that matches your Strongholds Clan Alignment, or with an All Clans Sensei. A Sensei modifies your Stronghold: It has modifiers for Province Strength, Gold Production and Starting Family Honor which always modify the Strongholds stats. A Sensei may also have traits and abilities that apply to you and that work similarly to those of a Stronghold.

Event
Events represent important happenings in Rokugan. While they are face-up in your Provinces, and only then, you can use their abilities. They are discarded once their abilities are used, unless the ability puts them into play. Apart from its abilities, an Event may have traits in its text box, and these apply while in play.

-7-

- Event TEXT BOX

TEXT BOX

GOLD COST

- Spell FOCUS VALUE

-8-

Spell
Spells are attachments. They represent magic scrolls used by a Shugenja (a person trained in the magic of Rokugan). Spells have no Force or Chi modifiers. They will only attach to a Shugenja, and their abilities can only be used (cast) if attached to a Shugenja. (see also Cast, p. 25).

Ring
Ring cards represent understanding of the mystic elements. They can be discarded from the hand to use their ability, or put into play when you meet the special conditions of the text in their trait. When in play, their ability can be used without having to discard them.

-9-

Actions
The Basic rules introduced Limited, Open, Battle and Dynasty actions. The full game has two more types of action: Engage and Interrupt. Engage actions are taken in a special action round during a battle, before either player has the chance to take Battle actions. See p. 54. Interrupts are announced during another actioneither yours or another playersat the point after costs are paid and before the actions effects start to resolve. The other action is suspended while you carry out the Interrupt action; then the original action resumes. Interrupts refer to the original action as the action (for example, The action cannot move Personalities.) If an Interrupt modifies an actions effects, this only applies to the action being interrupted, not to subsequent actions that turn.

-10-

Color, Flavor, & Reminder Text

Because Legend of the Five Rings tells a story, abilities on some cards may have a sentence of descriptive phrasing such as The snow blocks travel. Such phrasing is for color only. Phrasing that is relevant to the rules will refer to a term that can be found on other cards, or is defined in these rules. Text in (parentheses and italics) is a short, informal reminder of what the card does according to the rules. Descriptive text in italics without parentheses is flavor text, and also has no bearing on the rules. You may play as many Interrupts as you wish to a single action, but you may not play an Interrupt during another Interrupt action.

-11-

How Long Do Things Last?

Some effects are instantaneous, and marked by physical changes to the game components, such as bowing cards, changing their location, adding tokens, and changes to Family Honor. These changes do not wear off by themselves. Other effects involve changes that are ongoing. That is, they last until a certain point in the game, and are not physically marked by the game components. Some examples of ongoing effects include stats such as Give a target attacking Personality +2F, or giving a card the trait, This Personality will not bow. All ongoing effects last until the end of the current turn, unless they give a different duration.

-12-

As with Battle actions, Engage and Interrupt actions taken during a battle are subject to the Rules of Presence and Location, as described in the Basic Rulebook (see Basic Rulebook p. 57).

Recruit & Equip

Some actions tell you to Recruit or Equip a card. When this happens, pay the cost of the card entering play (indicated by the actions own * Gold cost), and apply all the effects of the Recruit or Equip player action.

Traits
Text in a cards text box can be keywords, an ability (starting with boldface words such as Open: or Ninja Battle:) or flavor text (italicized text that is only descriptive and not used in the game). Game-relevant text that is not part of any of these is a trait.

-13-

Some traits are triggered by other things happening, for example, After this card enters play, lose 3 Honor. A trait is not like an action, though: c c c c A trait is not optional; you must apply the effects whenever the trigger is met. A trait can be triggered when its card is bowed. A traits effects are not restricted to once per turn. A trait without a trigger on a card, such as Your Samurai each have +1F, has a continuous effect that is always on while the card is in play.

The Imperial Favor

The Imperial Favor is a resource that gives great political advantage to those who call upon it. It is represented by an object

-14-

that starts the game uncontrolled. When it becomes controlled, its controller places it in his home, in front of him, visible to all players. Ivory Edition Starter Decks include a card that you can use to represent the Imperial Favor. If you control the Favor, you may discard it, and then it becomes uncontrolled. Discarding the Favor is required for certain actions, including (but not limited to) the following two Favor player abilities: Favor Political Limited: Discard the Imperial Favor and a card to draw a card. Favor Political Battle: Discard the Imperial Favor to move home a target attacking enemy Personality.

Lobbying
This player ability lets you take the Imperial Favor, vying to win the favor of the Empress

-15-

by reminding her of your familys high deeds and standing.

Lobby
Political Limited: If you have higher Family Honor than each other player, bow your target unbowed Personality with 1 or more Personal Honor to take the Imperial Favor.

Dishonored Personalities
Some things can dishonor a Personality, disgracing him or her in the eyes of Rokugan. Turn the Personality card 180 degrees upside down to show this dishonorable state. A dishonorable Personality has a maximum of zero Personal Honor.

-16-

After a Personality is destroyed while dishonorable, the player who last controlled him loses Honor equal to the Personalitys printed Personal Honor. (This loss does not come from a card, but from the Rulebook.) A destroyed dishonorable Personality remains dishonorably dead even in the discard pile. Dishonorable Personalities remain dishonorable until an effect rehonors them (restores them to honorable status). Turn the card right side up again to represent the rehonoring. Sometimes an honor gain will rehonor a Person-

- Dishonored -

-17-

ality. Specifically, you substitute rehonoring for Honor gain: c Before a player gains Honor from an action or trait that targeted or came from one or more of his or her dishonorable Personalities. Before a player gains Honor for attaching a card to their dishonorable Personality. Before a player with any dishonorable Personalities in his or her army gains Honor from destroying enemy cards in battle resolution. In a tied battle, all dishonorable Personalities in an army are rehonored before being destroyed, and their armys leader gains no Honor.

In these cases, the honor gain will not happen, and instead the Personality or Personalities will be restored to honorable status.

-18-

Battles
Engage Segment
Engage actions represent especially wellprepared or rapid maneuvers in battle. The Engage Segment is an action round of Engage actions, starting with the Defender, that comes before Battle actions are taken in the Combat Segment. Once both players have passed consecutively on Engage actions, the Engage Segment ends and the Combat Segment begins.

Attacking Multiple Provinces

In the Basic Game, the Attacker only chooses one Province to attack, creating a battle-

-19-

field there. In the Advanced Game, after the Attacker declares an attack, a battlefield is created at each of the Defenders Provinces. When the Attacker and Defender assign, they may assign any of their legal units to any of these battlefields. A battle is then fought at each of these battlefields, with the Attacker choosing one by one which battle to fight, until all the battlefields have been fought at. Often, these battles will be at empty battlefields, and fighting them is a mere formality. In each battle, go through the Engage, Combat and Resolution segments in order. The steps after a battle also happen before the next battle begins, including units returning home. If any units find themselves at a battlefield whose battle has ended, they return home after the last battle ends, bowing if they were attacking.

-20-

No Second Battle
There is one additional rule restricting effects during a battle. A Personality who has already been in an attacking army during a battle resolution in the current Attack Phase will not move to a battlefield again during that Attack Phase.

Advanced Victory Conditions

In addition to the military and honor victories supported in the Basic Game, there are two other ways to win a game of L5R.

Dishonor Victory
If a players Family Honor is 20 or below at the end of his or her turn, he or she loses.

-21-

Enlightenment Victory
You win immediately if you control five Rings with five different element keywords (Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Void). You have seen the emptiness behind the so-called victory in war and court, and become an enlightened master.

Deck Building
You can expand and change your starter deck by trading for or buying other cards. Follow these rules to build a legal play deck in Ivory Edition 40/40 format: c The Dynasty and Fate decks must each have at least 40 cards. Your Stronghold and Sensei do not count toward this minimum, and copies of those cards may not be included in the Fate or Dynasty decks.

-22-

All cards in the play deck (including the Stronghold and Sensei) must be Ivory Edition legal, having the Ivory Edition symbol in the lower left hand corner of their most recent printing (MRP). Older printings of the cards may be used (see also Soul of , p. 41), but in all L5R formats, cards are considered to have the stats and text of their MRP. If you use older cards, youre responsible for knowing these differences and communicating them to your opponent. You can have no more than three copies of any card, by title, in your decks. You can have no more than one copy of each Unique card, by title, in your decks.

c c

Note that Experienced cards (p. 31) are an exception to the last two rules.

-23-

Game Terms & Keywords

In alphabetical order, this section lists rules associated with specific game terms and keywords that are not mentioned in the basic rules. After this, we present a number of fine points in the rules. Absent: An ability with the Absent keyword may be used during battle even if you control no units at the current battlefield. Active Player: The player whose turn it is. Additional actions: Additional actions granted by effects are taken after the current action resolves. In effect, they allow you to take another action in the present action round without your opponent getting an action. If the type of additional action is not specified, it is the type appropriate to the current action roundLimited in your Action Phase, Open in any players

-24-

Action Phase, Engage in the Engage Segment and Battle in the Combat Segment. Ally: A term used in the multiplayer rules (see Online Rules, p. 50). Armor: A keyword found on some Items. A Personality cannot have more than one Armor attached. Cannot: These words mean that an effect is prevented (see p. 38). Cast: When you take an action from a Spell attached to a Personality (usually a Shugenja) the Personality with the Spell attached in question casts the Spell and is the caster. Cavalry: The Cavalry keyword is relevant to the following ability which all players have: Absent Engage: Target your unbowed Personality in a Cavalry unit at any location. Move him to the current battlefield. A Cavalry unit is one in which the Personality and all Followers, if any, have the Cavalry keyword (see Units, p. 46).

-25-

Challenge: See Duel, Basic Rulebook, p.69. Clan Alignment: A keyword ending in Clan that refers to one of the nine major Clans: Crab, Crane, Dragon, Lion, Mantis, Phoenix, Scorpion, Spider, and Unicorn. Other keywords ending in Clan (for example, Bat Clan) are not Clan Alignments. Players, Personalities, Strongholds and Sensei can have Clan Alignments. A card also has a Clan Alignment if that clans symbol appears in the title bar. Combining: A way to use similar actions from cards in the same unit to create a larger strength effect. Fear effects, Ranged Attacks, and Melee Attacks can each be combined, but only with other effects of the same kind (that is, Ranged and Melee Attacks cannot combine with each other, etc.) To explain this rule well use the term attack effect and kind of effect to refer to the particular effect you are combining, whether Fear, Ranged or Melee. After you have paid the costs of an initial action that creates an attack effect from a card in a unit, as an Interrupt to

-26-

that action, you may pay the costs of an action from another card in the same unit that is appropriate to the phase and that creates another attack effect of the same kind, using that ability. Then resolve that actions effects, but instead of creating a separate attack effect, each of those actions relevant attack effects adds its own strength (with any modifications in effect) to the strength of the original attack effect. The original attack effect may only target a card that it, as well as each of the combining actions, could target. All other characteristics of the attack effect come from the original. You may combine more than one attack effect with the same initial action. Conqueror: Cards in a Conqueror Personalitys unit do not bow returning home after a battle. Contribute: A Personality or Follower contributes Force when its Force is added into its armys total Force. This is part of a battles resolution, but can also happen when an armys total Force is calculated for other rea-

-27-

sons. Bowed Personalities and Followers do not contribute Force. Control: You gain control of a card when you bring it into play; only cards in play are controlled. You will normally keep control of the card while it remains in play. However, an attachment is always controlled by its Personalitys controller. Some effects may change control of a card between players. Immediately after a player successfully takes control of another players card: c If the card is at a battlefield, it goes to the new controllers side of the battlefield, attaching to one of his Personalities if necessary; Otherwise, it enters the new players home.

Neither of these changes in location is movement. Copy: Some effects may copy a keyword, trait, or stat from one card to another. If a stat is cop-

-28-

ied, set the copying cards stat to the current value of the copied cards stat (see Set, p. 40). A card cannot copy its own text or stats. Created Cards: Some effects may create cards in addition to the cards included in decks. You may use pieces of paper, face down spare cards, or other objects to keep track of these. If an effect that creates a card gives no value for a stat the card type normally has, that stats base value is zero. Exception: Created Personalities have a Honor Requirement. Created attachments attach to a Personality as part of their creation effect. Other cards you create enter play in your home, and cards created during a battle join your current army, attaching to a Personality if necessary. When a created card leaves play, it ceases to exist. Dead, Destroy: See Personalities, p. 4. Destined: After your card with the Destined keyword enters play, draw a Fate card.

-29-

Discard: To put a card in its Dynasty or Fate discard pile. Discard a card by itself means discard a Fate card from your hand. If an effect requires you to discard the Imperial Favor, this means that you give up control of the Favor and it becomes uncontrolled. Discarded: The state of a card that is in a discard pile and is not dead. Discipline: A special trait on Strategies, appearing with a Gold cost icon. You may play a card with the Discipline trait from your discard pile for one of its actions, paying the Gold cost in the icon as an additional cost of the action (or adding the Gold cost to the actions if it already has a Gold cost). After the action ends, remove the card from the game. Keep in mind that abilities can be used only once per turn, meaning that Discipline abilities normally cant be used from the discard pile on the same turn you used them from your hand. Do Not, Does Not: These phrases in a card effect means that another effect is prevented (p. 38).

-30-

Draw: To put the top card of your Fate deck into your hand. Duel: See Basic Rulebook, p. 69. Element Keyword: One of the five keywords representing the mystic elements of Rokugan: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Void. Enemy: Referring to the player on the opposing side to you during a battle (the enemy leader), and to cards in units he or she controls. Cards not in units, such as Holdings, Terrains, or Regions, are not enemy cards. Exchange: When an effect exchanges two stats, note their current values. Then, simultaneously set each stat to the noted value of the other one (see Set, p. 40). Expendable: After a card with the Expendable keyword is destroyed, the player who controlled it last draws a card. Experienced: Some Personality cards have the Experienced keyword, which is sometimes

-31-

followed by a number representing the Personalitys experience level. A Personality with Experienced and no number has experience level of one. A Personality without Experienced has experience level zero. Any number of single Personalities with the same title but different experience levels may be included in a deck. During the Dynasty Phase, you may bring an Experienced Personality into play normally, or you may overlay him onto one of your Personalities of the same type in play with the same title, but lower experience level, as a Dynasty action. When you overlay, you do not need to meet Honor Requirements or pay costs, but you do need to meet other requirements and restrictions, including Loyal (p. 36). An overlaying card replaces its less experienced version without entering play, and the less experienced card is removed from the game without leaving play. On overlaying, the new card keeps all states, ongoing effects, attachments, and tokens of the old card, and is considered to be the same card.

-32-

Fail: When a cost or effect is activated but the game text but does not happen, it fails. This can be because of prevention (p. 38), or lack of suitable object (for example, Bow an unbowed Shugenja when no Shugenja are in the game). Fear: An effect that follows similar rules to Ranged and Melee Attacks (p. 36 and 39). A Fear effect has a numerical strength (example: Fear 4). Fear X is shorthand for the effect Bow a target enemy Follower or Personality without Followers with X or lower Force. Fear effects from cards in the same unit can be combined with each other. See Combining, p. 26. Focus, Focus Effect: Terms used in dueling. See Basic Rulebook, p. 71. Fortification: When brought into play, Holdings with the Fortification keyword are attached to the Province they entered play from, or to any of your Provinces if they were not brought in from a Province. Keep the Holding card under any card in the Province, in the same way an attachment is kept under its Person-

-33-

ality. Fortifications enter play paying costs as normal, but enter play unbowed (straightened). They are discarded if the Province is destroyed. During a battle, abilities on Fortifications can only be used if the Fortification is attached to the current battlefields Province. Home: The location in front of a players provinces where cards normally enter play, as opposed to battlefields. Home (keyword): An ability with the Home keyword may be used during battle even if the card it is on is at home. Honorable: A Personality who is not dishonorable. Honorably dead refers to such a Personality who is dead. See p. 16. Invest: This is a trait that starts with Invest and a Gold cost (for example, Invest 2 :). After a card with Invest is played, you may pay the additional cost in the Invest trait, once, to get an additional effect (for example, Gain 1 Honor or Give this card a +1F token.)

-34-

Infantry: This term refers to a Personality or Follower who does not have the Cavalry keyword. It is not itself a keyword. Kensai: A Kensai Personality can attach two Weapons if neither of them is Two-Handed. See Weapon (p. 44). Kharmic: A keyword that can appear on Dynasty or Fate cards, and allows you to pay 2 Gold to cycle them from your hand or Province. Specifically, all players have the following ability relevant to Kharmic cards: Kharmic Repeatable Limited, 2 : Discard a Kharmic card from your hand to draw a card, or discard a Kharmic card from your Province to refill the Province face-up. Leader: The Attacker or Defender in a battle. You are the friendly leader; the other player is the Enemy Leader. This term is more relevant to the multiplayer rules (see Online Rules, p. 50).

-35-

Location: An area holding cards in play. Each battlefield and each players home is a separate location. Look: To inspect a facedown card without showing it to anyone else or changing its position (for example, in a deck). Loyal: A Personality with the Loyal keyword cannot join a player who does not share a Clan alignment with the Personality, either by entering play or by taking control. May Not: See Prevention, p. 38 Melee Attack: These follow the same rules as Ranged Attacks (p. 39), representing destruction from close-range combat. Melee Attacks may be combined with other Melee Attacks. Move: An effect that moves a Personality changes his position from one location to another. Effects that move a Personality to a battlefield always move it into his controllers side there. Assigning to battlefields, and returning home from them, is not moving.

-36-

Multiplayer: A keyword telling you that a card is most useful (or only useful) in a multiplayer game. See Online Rules, p. 50. Naval: All players have the following ability relevant to Naval cards: Engage: If you are the Attacker, you have the first opportunity to take a Battle action, which must come from a card in a Naval Personalitys unit. Passing that action does not count toward ending the action round. Negate: A term that indicates a prevention effect (p. 38). Negate an action means to prevent all the actions effects and targeting, from the time the negation is applied. Opposed: A card, side, or army is opposed at a battlefield if there are one or more units in the enemy army. Opposing: Opposing refers to cards at the same battlefield, on different sides.

-37-

Overlay: See Experienced, p. 31 Own: You own all cards that were originally in your play deck and that you brought into play from outside the game, including cards you created. Cards you own can never go into another players decks or discard piles; they always go to yours instead. Permanent: A permanent effect refers to an effect whose duration lasts until the end of the game. Permanent effects can still be negated, ended, and changed by other effects. Prevention: A prevention effect is one that uses language such as negate, cannot, does not, or will not. While a prevention effect lasts, it makes another effect or type of effect fail to happen whenever it would occur. When an ongoing type of effect is prevented (for example, Negate all Force bonuses on him), this only suppresses existing effects for as long as the prevention lasts; it does not prevent new ones from applying. When an instant type of effect is prevented (for example,

-38-

Negate his destruction) this prevents new effects of that type for as long as the negation effect lasts. Ranged Attack: A Ranged Attack represents a military effect that destroys at a distance, such as archers arrows or a magical fiery bolt. Ranged X Attack, where X stands for a number, is shorthand for the text Destroy a target enemy Follower or Personality without Followers with X or lower Force. A Ranged Attack action is one with a Ranged Attack effect. If a Ranged Attack effect ends up being compared against a different stat than Force, compare that stat against the Ranged Attacks strength instead to determine whether the target is destroyed. Rehonor: See p. 16. Repeatable: An ability with the Repeatable keyword may be used any number of times per turn. Reserve: The following player abilities are relevant to the Reserve keyword:

-39-

Absent Repeatable Battle, * : If he would be opposed, Recruit your target Reserve Personality (into the current battlefield). Repeatable Battle, * : If it would be opposed, Equip a Reserve attachment to your target Personality (at the current battlefield). Reveal: To turn a facedown card faceup. Search: To look through a deck or other area for a card of a specified kind. After you search a deck, you must reshuffle it after you take any card(s) you searched for. Seppuku: An act of ritual suicide. If an effect directs a Personality to commit seppuku, apply the following effects: Rehonor the Personality, then destroy him; these effects will not be negated. Set: When a stat is set to a particular value, give it a bonus or penalty such that it reaches the new value.

-40-

Show: To display the face of a facedown card to all other players, then return it to its face down state. Shugenja: A person trained in the magic of Rokugan. Only Shugenja Personalities can Equip and cast Spells. Soul of : This is a keyword that includes another Personalitys title, showing that the current character is a descendant or disciple of the older character in the present generation. Soul of Personalities are equivalent to the older card for deck construction purposes. In a game, you may use a copy of the older card from a previous edition as a proxy for the Soul of version, but you must inform the other player of any differences in stats or wording between the two when it appears in the game. Switch: When an effect switches the locations of two units, each one simultaneously moves to the location of the other. If one movement is negated, the other one is also negated.

-41-

Tactician: All Tactician Personalities have the following ability, known as Tactical Advantage.

Tactical Advantage
Battle: Discard a card to give this Personality a Force bonus equal to the Focus Value of the discarded card. This ability cannot be removed or copied from the Tactician Personality. Terrain: A Strategy with the Terrain keyword represents the ground on which a battle is fought. Most Terrains have a Battle ability that puts them into play at the current battlefield. After a battle ends, discard any Terrain at its battlefield. Tireless: An ability with the Tireless keyword may be used even if the card it is on is bowed. Token: A marker in the game. You may use beads, pieces of paper, or other distinct objects

-42-

as tokens. Tokens may have a keyword (such as Corruption). They may also give a stat bonus or penalty (such as 1C) to whatever they are on. This bonus or penalty is considered to come from the last effect that placed the token on the card or area. Tokens are not cards. They are removed from the game if the card they are on leaves play. Transfer: To re-attach a card or token from one card or province to another. You do not need to pay the costs of a transferred card again, but you do need to meet any restrictions on attaching. Unaligned: Refers to a Personality, player, or Stronghold without a Clan alignment. It is not itself a keyword. Unique: A player cannot bring into play or take control of a Unique card if he or she already controls a Unique card with the same title (but see Experienced, p. 31). If a player takes control of a unit with a copy of a Unique attachment he or she already controls, discard the new attach-

-43-

ment. The Unique keyword also restricts deck construction. See Deck Building, p. 22. Weapon: A Personality can have only one Weapon attached. Exception: See Kensai, p. 35. Will Not: This phrase in a card effect means that another effect is prevented (p. 38).

Special Circumstances
The following rules are for situations that may sometimes arise in advanced play.

Keywords
Keywords on abilities also apply to their cardsso, for example, a Strategy with a Political ability is a Political Strategy. Keywords on cards do not apply to their abilitiesan ability on a Ninja card is not a Ninja ability unless it says so. For example, Ninja Battle:

-44-

In Play & Out of Play

Cards must be in playthat is, in your home or at a battlefieldto be legal targets, unless the targeting says or implies otherwise. To use its abilities, a card must either be in play, be an Event played from your Province, or be a Strategy or Ring played from your hand. Abilities that break this rule will say that they can be used from a different area (for example, If this Follower is in your hand) If a card is both out of play and face-down (including returning to the hand), it forgets ongoing effects on it, and other changes such as whether its abilities have been used.

Bonuses, Penalties & Stats

Bonuses are effects from cards or player abilities that say they increase a stat. The added Force and Chi from the relevant modifier stats on Items are modifiers, not bonuses, but if

-45-

an Item says This Personality has +2F while opposed, that counts as a bonus. All stats, except for Family Honor and Honor Requirement, have a minimum value of zero. If you need to know a stats value at any time, apply all current bonuses and penalties first, then apply any minimum or maximum value. Example: If a card with 2 Force gets a -3F penalty, apply the penalty, then the basic minimum of zero. This means that the cards Force is zero for all purposes, not -1. If it then gets a +2F bonus, apply the bonus, the penalty, and the minimum, so that it now has 1 Force.

Units
References to a units keywordfor example, A Cavalry unitmean a unit where the Personality and each Follower in it (if any) all have that keyword. For example, a unit with a Cavalry Per-

-46-

sonality and a non- Cavalry Follower would not be a Cavalry unit, because of the Follower. Effects that do something to a unitfor example, bow or destroyhave their effect on each card in that unit. If a Personality leaves play, all his or her attached cards leave play in the same way.

Simultaneous Things
As a general rule, if two or more things appear to happen simultaneously, the player whose turn it is decides in what order they happen. More detailed rules covering this issue are found in the Online Rules (see p. 50). An exception is Interrupt actions, because they are taken at their players choice. If more than one Interrupt can be triggered at the same time, use a special action round. The active player has the first opportunity to play an Interrupt to that action or pass, fol-

-47-

lowed by the other player, and then the active player has another opportunity. The action round continues until both players pass consecutively.

Empty Decks
If either the Dynasty or Fate deck runs out of cards, nothing special happens, except that there are no more cards left in the deck. Provinces that cannot be refilled still exist. Use markers to represent them.

Separate Effects
Each of an actions or traits effects is separate, and will happen even if the other effects fail to happen. For example, if an action says Battle: Straighten your target Personality and move him home, if he is already unbowed you can still take the action; the straightening fails, but he still goes home.

-48-

Exceptions
Some cards describe an effect happening to do something else (for example, Discard a card to gain 1 Honor.) If the first effect fails (for example, discarding a card with no cards in hand), the second thing (gaining Honor) does not happen. Likewise, if a card says to do something after or as something else happens (for example, As he moves, bow him; After he is dishonored, gain 1 Honor) , the second thing doesnt happen if the first thing fails to happen. In the second example here, if an already dishonorable Personality is dishonored, the 1 Honor gain does not happen, because he does not go from the honorable to dishonorable state. Targeting can cause the remaining effects in an action to fail if it is not met, but targeting is not itself an effect (see Actions, p. 10)

-49-

Online Rules
Visit http://rules.l5r.com for errata and comprehensive rules, plus variant rules for 3 or more players, draft, sealed deck and more. Rules questions can be asked and officially answered at the L5R CCG Rules Questions forum (http://www.alderac. com/forum/). The Tournament Rulebook is a resource for tournament judges and players, a printable document available online. They cover rare situations and questions such as: c c c When can I play a card even though it will have no effect (Good Faith Rule)? Does a created card have a printed Force? Does destruction for having zero Chi come from a card or the Rulebook? What about destruction from a Ranged Attack?

The most detailed rules resource is the Comprehensive Rules, also available online.

-50-

Complete Turn Sequence

1. Action Phase. Straighten your bowed cards and reveal cards in Provinces. Then take an action round: your Limited and Open actions, your opponents Open actions. 2. (Optional) Attack Phase. You may declare an attack. Assign your unbowed Personalities to attack your opponents Provinces. Your opponent assigns unbowed Personalities to defend. At each Province (Attacker decides order): c c c Defender, then Attacker, take a round of Engage actions. Combat Segment: Defender, then Attacker, take a round of Battle actions. Resolution: Side with most total Force wins, not counting bowed Personali-

-51-

ties and Followers. Destroy all cards on the losing side, or all cards if tied; each player gets 2 Honor for each enemy card destroyed this way. Destroy the Province if the Attackers total Force was greater than the Defenders total Force plus Province Strength. c Attacking units return home, then bow. 3. Dynasty Phase. Bring Personalities and Holdings into play. Discard face-up Dynasty cards. Draw cards up to your hand size limit (eight).

Action Phase Abilities

Cycle
Limited: If it is your first turn, choose one or more face-up cards in your Provinces. Put them on the bottom of your deck in any order. (Refill the empty Provinces face-down.) Then, turn all cards in your Provinces face-up.

-52-

Equip
Repeatable Open, * : Attach an attachment card, with Gold Cost equal to the amount you paid, from your hand to your target Personality.

Lobby
Political Limited: If you have higher Family Honor than each other player, bow your target unbowed Personality with 1 or more Personal Honor to take the Imperial Favor.

Imperial Favor
Favor Political Limited: Discard the Imperial Favor and a card to draw a card.

Kharmic
Kharmic Repeatable Limited, 2 : Discard a Kharmic card from your hand to draw

-53-

a card, or discard a Kharmic card from your Province to refill the Province face-up.

Attack Phase Abilities

Engage Segment
Cavalry
Absent Engage: Target your unbowed Personality in a Cavalry unit at any location. Move him to the current battlefield.

Naval
Engage: If you are the Attacker, you have the first opportunity to take a Battle action, which must come from a card in a Naval Personalitys unit. Passing that action does not count toward ending the action round.

-54-

Combat Segment
Imperial Favor
Favor Political Battle: Discard the Imperial Favor To move home a target attacking enemy Personality.

Reserve
Absent Repeatable Battle, * : If he would be opposed, Recruit your target Reserve Personality (into the current battlefield). Repeatable Battle, * : If it would be opposed, Equip a Reserve attachment to your target Personality (at the current battlefield).

Tactical Advantage
Battle: Discard a card to give this Personality a Force bonus equal to the Focus Value of the discarded card. (This is an ability granted by the rules to each Tactician Personality)

-55-

Dynasty Phase Abilities

Recruit
Repeatable Dynasty, * : Bring into play a face-up Personality or Holding from your Prov Province with Gold Cost equal to the amount you paid, paying 2 more Gold if the Personality has a Clan Alignment but does not have your Clan Alignment. (Holdings enter play bowed.) Once during your own turn, after you announce a Recruit action or an action with Recruit as an effect, you may choose to Proclaim the Personality being Recruited. If he has your Clan Alignment, gain Honor equal to his Personal Honor after he enters play

Discard
Repeatable Dynasty: Discard a face-up card from one of your Provinces. (Refill it face-down.)

-56-